Backup Jobs
This section is disabled by default and is set by your hosting provider. Please visit Permissions for more information.
Backup Jobs allows you to configure how JetBackup generates and manages your backups according to your backup job configuration. In this section, you will be able to create, modify and manage your Backup Jobs.
Create New Backup Job
To create a new backup job, click on "+ Create New Backup Job".
Job Name
Specify a unique name for your backup job. This will be used internally for your convenience.
Creator
Specify the creator for this Backup Job. This grants the creator and its parent account(s) permission to modify and delete this Backup Job. Please note that the creator specified will also need Can Manage Backup Jobs permission granted under the Permissions section.
Destinations
Specify which destination(s) to transfer/store your generated backups to. You can find more details regarding supported destinations in the Destinations Overview section.
Backup Type
JetBackup can perform the following types of backups. Here's a brief explanation for each type:
- Accounts - Copy files/folders from each account that you choose to include.
You can choose to include/exclude the following:
Panel Configurations
Home directory Files
Databases (Incremental backups is not supported for this type *)
Database Users
Email Accounts/Structure **
FTP Accounts
Cron Jobs
Domains
SSL Certificates
* In the case of an incremental job, all files included in this job are backed up incrementally with the exception of databases. Databases are regenerated and synced to the destination. Each job run will add the disk usage of each database dump file to the backup. If a database did not change from a previous backup, then the database dump file from the previous snap is used instead of creating a new database dump file.
** When choosing the option to backup email structure, the backup will contain the email account structure without the email content. The Exclude Junk option will exclude trash, spam, junk and draft directories from the backup job.
Backup Structure
Backup structures tells how backups are generated and stored. JetBackup supports the following backup structures:
- Incremental - Backup new and changed data since the previous backup.
- Archived - Backup data in an uncompressed archive (.tar file format). Uncompressed backups are faster to generate but require more space.
- Compressed - Backup data in a compressed archive (.tar.gz file format). Compressed backups use less space but take more time to generate.
For more information about the Backup structures supported for your destination, go to Destinations Overview.
Encrypted Backups
Choose whether or not backups will be encrypted on the backup destination. This option is only available with Archived and Compressed Backup Structure. Please note that users/accounts that opts for encrypted backups exclusively will be automatically excluded from unencrypted backup jobs.
Account Filters
Account Filters allows you to specify conditions on which to include/exlcude on you Backup Job(s). By default, all accounts are included in the backup job. Multiple filters may also be applied and are combined by AND/OR statements.
AND - the condition on EACH filter(s) must be met in order for an account to be included in the backup job.
OR - the condition on EITHER filter(s) must be met in order for an account to be included in the backup job.
Once filter(s) are applied on a backup job, JetBackup will start to clean(delete) previous backups generated from the backup job for each excluded accounts, from the oldest to the most recent backup. Each backup-job execution will remove one backup for each excluded accounts.
Create Account Filters
In order to create an account filter, either click on "Manage Account Filters" > "+ Create New Filter" or through the Account Filters section under the Backup Job configuration page.
Filter Type
- Accounts Filter - Specify which accounts to Include/Exclude in the backup job.
- Resellers Filter - Specify which reseller accounts (includes the reseller's sub accounts) to Include/Exclude in the backup job.
- Suspension Filter - Specify whether to Include/Exclude suspended accounts in the backup job.
- Disk Space Usage Filter - Filter accounts to Include Below/Above (or equals) a specified disk space usage in the backup job.
- Inode Usage Filter - Filter accounts to Include Below/Above (or equals) a specified Inodes (files number) usage in backup job.
- Packages Filter - Specify which accounts to Include/Exclude by cPanel Packages in the backup job.
- Characters Range Filter - Specify which accounts to Include/Exclude by characters range in the backup job.
- Regular Expression Filter - Specify which accounts to Include/Exclude by a regular expression pattern in the backup job
Filter Name
Specify a unique name for your account filter(s). This will be used internally for your convenience.
Creator
Specify the creator for this account filter. This grants the creator and its parent account(s) permission to modify and delete this account filter. Please note that the creator specified will also need Can Manage Backup Jobs permission granted under the Permissions section.
Filter Condition
Whatever to included or excluded accounts filtered by this filter.
Examples:
Directories and Files to Exclude
Excluding files & folders from backup is a very important feature, and we recommend to use it. Each backup job has it's own exclude list that can be specified and modified. The exclude list will be piped to our sync operation. The supported path format should be in glob pattern.
Specify a file/folder path on the field and click on "Add Path" to add on the exclude list or click on "Insert Multiple" to exclude in bulk.
Exclude files and folders in bulk:
Here is some recommendations for files/folders to exclude.
*.jpa
backup-*.tar.gz
site-*.tar.gz
*/com_akeeba/backup/*
*/backupbuddy_backups/*
public_html/cache/*
tmp/*
logs/*
softaculous_backups/*
*/wp-content/uploads/wpcf7_captcha/*
*/wp-content/widget-cache/*
*/wp-content/cache/*
*/wptsc-cachedir/*
Schedules
Backup Job Schedules tells JetBackup the time and frequency a backup job will be executed as well as the number of backups to keep for the corresponding schedule (backup retention).
JetBackup gives you the option to set multiple schedules for each backup job. There are no extra overhead between backups with multiple schedules running at the same time as JetBackup will automatically mark each coinciding backup with the appropriate schedule types.
NOTE: Changing between schedule types may remove backups generated from the previous schedule type. Please review how to properly make changes on your schedule.
Create Schedule
Schedule Name
Specify a unique name for your schedule. This will be used internally for your convenience.
Schedule Type
- Hourly - Will be executed every X hours.
- Daily - Will be executed on the days of the week you choose to execute the backup job.
- Weekly - Will be executed once a week, on the day you choose to execute the backup job.
- Monthly - Will be executed on the days of the month, from the 1st / 7th / 14th / 21st / 28th day you choose to execute the backup job.
- After Backup job is done - The job depends on another Backup job to be finished, only then it will be executed. When this option is chosen, You can also set a "delay" in minutes/hours/days to wait before starting.
To safely change between schedule types, please add a new schedule on top of your existing schedule(s) and give your backup job ample time (the full retention length of your new schedule) to generate and correctly mark backups with the appropriate schedule type(s). You can then safely remove the previous schedule once the backup job runs for one full cycle of your retention.
Schedule Hours
With an Hourly Schedule Type, you may choose to execute the backup job every one/two/three/four/six/eight/twelve Hours.
Schedule Days
Backup Retain
Backup Retain specifies how many backups to keep with the corresponding schedule type.
Schedule Time
With an /Daily/Weekly/Monthly Schedule Type, you may specify the time of day (based on your server local time) on when to execute the backup job.
Schedule Delay
With a After Backup/Clone/cPanel job is done Schedule Type, you may set how much time to delay a backup job in minutes/hours/days before executing the backup job.
Schedule Time
The time that you want all schedules to be executed.
Backup Job Settings
Click on the preferred Backup Job listed in the Backup Job section to expand and view the available backup job settings.
Enable Backup Job
Click on "Enable Backup Job" to toggle between enabling and disabling your backup job.
Manage Backup Job
Click on 'Manage Backup Job' to modify your backup job configuration.
Run Backup Job Now (Manual Backups)
Execute your Backup Job manually and on-demand.
Manually running backup jobs does not count towards your scheduled backup job rotation. To set the retention and TTL for manually executed backups, please visit Manual Backup Settings.
View Backup Logs
Click on 'View Backup Job' to see Logs associated to the selected Backup Job.
Duplicate Backup Job
Click on 'Duplicate Backup Job' to make a copy of the selected Backup Job.
Delete Backup Job
Click on 'Delete Backup Job' to Delete your job permanently.
Additional Information
Optimizing your backups on supported destinations
"Point-In-Time" incremental backups - For retentions on incremental backups, JetBackup generates "point-in-time" incremental backups that use as little space as possible (using hard links). For example, on a 2GB DirectAdmin account with 30-day backup retention, it will only consume 2GB + 30 Days worth of new/changed data.
For databases, JetBackup generates a full dump of the databases for the initial incremental backup. If the databases are modified, JetBackup will then generate a new full dump for the incremental backup. Otherwise, the previous snap of the database dump will be used in the incremental backup.
Limitations
Symlink Limitation
As a security measure to prevent backing-up folders that certain users should not have access to, JetBackup only backs up cPanel permanent links which are limited to account restore/download process(es). JetBackup does not follow nor include any other symlinks during the backup process.
* A symlink or Symbolic Link is simply a shortcut to another file or folder. It is a file that points to another file. You can think of Symlinks as shortcuts sometimes created by root users.
Invalid characters
JetBackup can't restore files and/or directories with certain special characters or permissions.
For a list of recommended special characters and file permissions to avoid, please visit: Characters to Avoid when naming Files and Folders